The Guardian has a story on the growing crop of farmers in Africa’s ever expanding cities:
“… Across Africa, political leaders, long dismissive of rural concerns, have woken up to the importance of agriculture and the role that educated people, even those living in major cities, can play in farming. In Nigeria, former president Olusegun Obasanjo has a huge diversified farm and has pushed for policies to help absentee farmers prosper. In Uganda, vice-president Gilbert Bukenya routinely travels the country, promoting higher-value farming, such as dairy production.
Perhaps the most visible political support for absentee agriculture is in Liberia, a small west African country where civil war destroyed agriculture, rendering the population dependent on food imports, even today. The president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, recognising that educated people could contribute much to an agriculture revival, has launched a “Back to the Soil” campaign in large part to encourage urban dwellers to farm.”
